Comments on: Tower Records

By: Richard Wong

Richard Wong — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 21:51:25 +0000

Thanks for sharing the story, Bernie. It’s things like that that kids nowadays won’t be able to tell their kids.

“When I was a kid, I logged on my computer and got my music off iTunes then hit the play button.”

By: bernie kasper

bernie kasper — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:25:09 +0000

My how music has changed and the way it is distributed, for me it was a trip to our local bowling alley that also served as a record store, and it was the big vinyl albums we used to buy.

My older brother still has I believe almost every Beatles Album sold on vinyl !!!

By: Richard Wong

Richard Wong — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:46:41 +0000

Good points Mark. I would agree that most albums suck except for one or two songs. Nowadays I’ll buy cd’s only if I like the artist or most of the music on there.

I got turned onto Patty Griffin by hearing her music online and have bought her cd’s ever since. I’ve only bought like 2 or 3 entire albums off iTunes and never looked at the liner notes via PDF but I’m sure it is much more interesting to have something tangible in your hands to flip through rather than a computer monitor. The thing I find about being able to hear online first is that I am less excited about buying it after I’ve already heard it for free even if I like the music.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:01:53 +0000

I never had a Tower Records near me, but knew of the big name. Here it was Harmony House as the big name, as well as a lot of small indie stores that were sometimes great for finding something new.

But I also remember how difficult it seemed to get turned on to something new because you couldn’t always listen to everything in the store. I don’t know how many cassettes or LPs I have where I wished I could only buy the song I liked because the rest of it sucked.

I do miss the liner notes and artwork though. It is taking awhile to get used to looking at their PDF replacements.

I think I have discovered more new work with the digital age however. Between listening to Pandora, or even just randomly jumping around in iTunes, visiting music websites, I have stumbled upon some pretty nice stuff.

It also seems to be turning in favor of the artists now. Without having to rely on these stores for distribution and the labels for promotion, perhaps they are getting a bigger slice of the pie that they deserve.